Chapter 866: Defus the Transcendent
*Crack* *Crack*
The bones thrown into the warm campfire crackled gently under everyone's tired eyes.
"...Our relationship with the Overlord? I guess there's no harm in telling you, the Great Serpent Empire has known this information for a long time and that's why they insist on attacking us, I don't see it as a problem if I tell you too." Sandria stared into Old Man Gu's eyes for a few seconds, then turned back to watching the burning bones as she rested her chin on her wrists, "But to know what our relationship with the Overlord is like, you have to know our past first. Tell me, have you seen the red-skinned human girls on the other side of the abyss?"
"Yeah, Sigh- The scene of their unfortunate killing by that criminal general is still etched in my memory. They're mutants I guess? They're not pure humans that's for sure." Old Man Gu nodded
"Mutants?" Sandria sent a glance at Old Man Gu before turning her attention back to the warm flames, "I guess you could call them that, they can easily survive the high temperatures on the other side of the abyss, and they are also our predecessors."
"Your predecessors? Not another race?" Old Man Gu slightly furrowed his brows.
"No, there was only one race on this planet, the Red-Skinned Humans. But later on, we reached this state with the help of the Overlord..." Sandria shook her head, "Anyway, the Red- Skinned Humans have dominated the planet since the beginning of creation, all of them stuck on the north side because they couldn't cross the abyss. You have passed it and can imagine why-"
"...The planet as a whole at that time had a very high temperature that burned any edible plant, which made all the animals and beasts carnivorous and made any type of hunting or farming for the humans almost non-existent, which led to the amount of food available being very little, not to the point of starvation, but enough to make them limit the offspring to one son per family." Sandria continued, resting her head on her wrist, "And during that difficult time, the abyss and crossing to the other side remained their preoccupation, as they believed the other side was full of good things to be discovered, but it was still just a dream... No one could cross the abyss without reaching the top of the Sagehood Realm, a power they had not yet discovered."
Old Man Gu nodded attentively, wanting to absorb as much information as possible.
"And if you think their lives were difficult enough, listen to this... While they were busy with the difficulty of providing food or searching for ways to reach the other side, a disaster appeared that no one had anticipated. The temperature of the planet began to rise, slowly, but it was rising noticeably for everyone." The image of the flame was reflected in Sandria's pupils, "In the late period of the planet's history, after the temperature doubled, people were roasted alive in the streets if they went out during the day. All the beasts and insects died, and every drop of visible water evaporated. They were practically living in a huge oven waiting for their turn to die of hunger, thirst, or burning..."
Old Gu's expression twitched, and even the people close to Sandria, whether humans or foxes, looked down. This was indeed one of the worst ways to die.
"But at the right moment, before our predecessors were completely wiped out, an icy wind came from the south, lowering the temperatures and restoring the balance in the north to what it was, or even better." Sandria smiled slightly, "When our predecessors went to see the source of that cold wind that saved their lives and the lives of their families, they found that the southern side of the abyss had completely frozen as if it had turned into another world, and they saw a great beast walking on the other side with infinite elegance and grace, then it simply disappeared again as if it had never appeared... This was the first time the Three- Tailed Fox, Defus the Transcendent, had been seen."
Old Man Gu raised his eyebrows, that beast is the reason why the entire southern half of the planet was frozen?
"We later learned that the Defus Transcendent is most likely a beast king that the planet spirit raised with all its might to save the planet from the danger of all beings becoming extinct and turning into a lifeless asteroid. But our predecessors at that time didn't know this, they thought that he was a god who came down from the sky to save them, and they started mixing all kinds of myths around him." Sandria laughed, "And they even had a stronger goal to reach the other side, first to feel that icy world that was foreign to them, and second to pay respect and reverence to that great entity."
The old man nodded a few times, this is really something that humans would do... "Dozens, even hundreds of thousands of years have passed since that day. Many have reached the top of the Sagehood Realm by breaking through along the Fire Heavenly Path's various laws and have succeeded in reaching the other side. However, they failed to penetrate a few kilometers due to the extreme cold and their bodies not being able to adapt to that kind of weather, so they would reluctantly return with their heads bowed."
Sandria continued without stopping, "Until one day in modern history, that is, only about 50 thousand years ago, a large number of tribe leaders at the top of the Sagehood Realm allied and decided to cross together. They helped each other with all their might to light campfires and killed the snow beasts that had begun to appear and adapt on the other side and took shelter under their furs. After years of searching and slow progress, they succeeded in penetrating the southing half of the planet until they reached the deepest point, the lair of Defus the Transcendent."
Old Man Gu and those with him listened attentively. Entering the lair of a beast with such strength would definitely be a big event.
"It was then when Defus the Transcendent deserved his title~" Flora smiled, "He just sat there, watching those red-skinned humans with boredom as they kneeled and banged their heads on the frozen ground in front of him, beseeching him and pleading with him. He didn't bother to hurt them, nor did he give them anything either. I guess he was enjoying that cute show."
"After that day, those tribal leaders built a large altar near the lair of the Three-Tailed Fox to offer sacrifices of the beasts they hunted nearby and to venerate him in various ways. Then they built a small village next to the lair for those who came to make the pilgrimage after them to live in. To this moment, I don't understand why they did all this, Defus the Transcendent didn't ask for all this. Were they trying to get close to him to gain some benefits, or were they trying to ward off any future evil? I don't know..."
Here Sandria laughed a little, "Anyway, we're sitting in that village now, and the altar is just a few hundred steps away from here."